Greetings readers! Today, we hit a new milestone. The Windows Store has over 35,000 apps worldwide. Reaching this number of apps took Windows Phone one whole year; Windows 8 has reached it in merely two months since release. According to Win Rumors, Windows Phone was released in October of 2010, and in October of 2011, it had over 35,000 apps. Windows 8 was released on the October of 2012, and, now, in December of 2012, we have passed that milestone.

This is a huge and unprecedented milestone. Windows Store continues to be the fastest growing app store, and it makes sense. Windows is sold in hundreds of millions each year, making it the biggest platform in terms of market share. There is absolutely no reason that developers won’t flock to this platform. As Microsoft MVP Richard Hay likes to say, “It’s Windows, developers will develop apps for it.”

We are getting this number courtesy of the third party Windows Store tracker known as the Metro Store Scanner. That website tracks newly released and updated apps and the latest app count. Note that the 35,000 is the worldwide app count. You will certainly see less apps on the Windows Store. The amount you can browse and download depends on your country. The US market has 22,703 apps, which is stall a big amount. Your country may have more or less than that amount.

This the Third Party Metro Store Scanner Page

In the US, there are 18,469 free apps, and 4,233 paid apps, making a ratio of 77% free apps and 23% paid apps in the US market. Again, your country can have more or less apps.

What we don’t know is if the 35,000 thousand apps include apps that Microsoft or the app publisher might have taken down from the store. If it doesn’t, the total number of apps published will be much more than the 35,000 amount.

While the app developers doubted the feasibility of making apps for the Windows Phone due to its small market share, we are not seeing this trend in terms of Windows 8, and reasonably so. Also note that total number of apps doesn’t mean much because we are interested in quality apps. We will continue to feature apps that are truly quality apps, so be sure to stay tuned on this site! As always, you can follow @McAkins and me, @NazmusLabs, on twitter.